Play store
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Syria on Saturday for a three-day visit, marking the first trip by a UN chief to the country since before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Guterres was received at Damascus International Airport by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, according to state news agency SANA.
The visit comes more than 18 months after Syria’s new authorities, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, ending more than 13 years of conflict that claimed over half a million lives.
According to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, Guterres will reaffirm the organisation’s support for Syria’s political transition and stress that the country now has an opportunity “not only to recover from conflict, but also to lay the foundations for a future that is more stable, more inclusive and more prosperous for all Syrians.”
He is also expected to reiterate the UN’s commitment to supporting both the Syrian government and its people during the country’s rebuilding process.
During his visit, Guterres is scheduled to hold talks with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who last year became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly. He will also meet representatives of Syrian civil society, including organisations working on women’s rights, and address the country’s newly formed transitional parliament, which convened its first session earlier this month.
The UN chief will also visit the United Nations peacekeeping force stationed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where UN observers have monitored the ceasefire between Israeli and Syrian forces since 1974.
The security situation in southern Syria remains fragile. Following Assad’s overthrow, Israeli forces entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights and have since carried out repeated military strikes and incursions inside Syrian territory. Israel says it intends to maintain troops in what it describes as a “security zone” in southern Syria, despite international criticism.
Although Syria’s new authorities and Israel have held several rounds of direct talks and agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism, the arrangement has so far failed to stop Israeli military operations, which have been condemned by the United Nations and several members of the international community.
Guterres is the first UN secretary-general to visit Syria since Ban Ki-moon travelled to the country in 2009, two years before the civil war erupted. Since the fall of Assad, several senior UN officials, including Human Rights Chief Volker Türk and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi, have visited Syria, while a UN Security Council delegation made its first-ever visit to the country late last year.
